This morning I went to my local Walmart to purchase toiletries. As I approached the rows of shopping carts, I stopped short when I saw this:

It was a carefully wrapped dirty diaper abandoned on the top shelf of a cart. Directly next to it was a trash can and Purell sanitizing wipes.

Even as a mom who has been handling dirty diapers for the past year, this surprise package of poo had me cringing the whole time I price shopped tampons and face wash.

Instead of judging the culprit, I learned in my mother’s group that the correct thing to do is take a deep breath and acknowledge that as moms we’re all in this together. We should never judge another mother; we all make choices that are correct for us at the time. Perhaps the diaper-dirtier was having a tantrum, and all poor mom (or dad or guardian) could do was pick up the kid and flee the store.

But because this blog is anonymous, at least for now, I’m going to say what I really think:

Shame on that dirty pig parent for not throwing away their child’s diaper. You never leave a man behind.

I’ve changed my kid in some exotic places, like on a bench in a deserted mall. But I took the diaper with me. I take poop home when I change my daughter at friend’s houses. And one time, when I was at a community playgroup with a carry-in carry-out policy, I even stuffed a diaper in a latex glove (dirtiest turkey balloon ever) because I didn’t have a plastic bag. So there’s no excuse for the waste left on display in that Walmart carriage.

I’m chalking this up to a very good reason to use shopping cart covers and wash my produce.